There exists in the prior art different methods and systems for monitoring animals such as WO2005/070326, which discloses an oestrus determination system that comprises sensors on an animal to determine one or more behaviours of the animal, means for storing the sensor data and one or more processors to process the sensor data to generate an indication of whether the animal is in oestrus. The data is analysed by determining the presence of typical patterns that occur in the various sensor types when the animal is in oestrus. However the data is displayed in the form of simple graphs, such as activity and inactivity and milk production. There is no mention of the display of a visual sequence to enable a viewer to see the behaviour of the animal, such as by inferring from the basic measured sensor data, such as periods of activity, and interpreted data, such as the type of activity being performed during the active periods.
The document WO02/092101 discloses a system for analysing animal behaviour by collecting physical and biological data from a variety of sensors. The data is then interpreted using pattern recognition to assess the behaviour of the animal, for determining the effects of drugs in clinical trials. The document discloses graphical display of the collected data in the form of charts and diagrams that show specific behaviour exhibited over time. However the system doesn't display a sequence of the basic and interpreted activities of the animal over time.
US2002/091326 discloses an information acquisition system that includes sensors for detecting the physiological state, such as pulse and heartbeat, and physical state, such as posture or action state, of a person or animal. The system also includes means for transmitting the information from the sensors and means for evaluating the information to determine an abnormality in the state of the person or animal. Although the system doesn't include visually showing the behaviour of the animal as a sequence of images derived from the sensor data.
JP2005196398 discloses a system for analysing the behavioural patterns of small animals using video images of the animals' movements, wherein the images are processed to simplify the contained information and analysed for particular image patterns. The information obtained from the analysis is displayed in time-variation graphs. However the system doesn't display results of the analysis as a sequence of images.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,375,612 discloses a system for monitoring the movement of animals by collecting the positional data of the animals over time to generate data representing the movement patterns of the animals. The movement patterns can be used to determine at least one physical condition of the animals, such as increased movement to water areas, or overall decreased movement may indicate poor health. The data is analysed by comparing the movement patterns of each animal to reference movement patterns. The system does not provide a sequence of visual representations from the analysed data to allow further interpretation of the behaviour of the animals.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,941,239 and 6,571,193. Disclosed in these documents is a system for recognising actions, wherein sensors are attached to an object such as a human, animal or machine and the sensor provides data on a state change, such as an action or movement, of the object. A characteristic quantity is determined from the measured sensor data by Fourier analysis, or some other frequency analysis. The frequency characteristics of the movement or action, as indicated by the sensor data, are used as the characteristic quantity for comparison with reference data to determine the identity of the movement or action. Combinations of movements, such as waving one hand while walking, may also be determined by extracting the individual frequency characteristics of the components of the action/movement combination. The frequency characteristics of the actions and movements are used in this system because such frequency spectrums are readily analysed and recognised by computer means.
In this system the actions and movements when compared to reference spectrum can be expressed, as probabilities when there is not a perfect match with reference spectrums, such as 0.67 probability of brisk walking and 0.33 probability of running. To aid in analysis by an observer, the data may then be used to animate a character to show the motion or action as determined by the frequency analysis. Thus the character would be animated with a motion characterised by a combination of brisk walking with a relative strength of 0.67 and running with a relative strength of 0.33. This enables an observer to more directly see the motion that the frequency analysis has determined—which may be more informative than the probability expression alone. However this system only displays determinations of specific actions, and does not enable a user to view a sequence of activities to determine the overall behaviour of an animal.